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New Toy
Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 12:08 am
by Fishy
Anyone ever use one of these for something BESIDES SPL Metering?
I need an RTA to tweek my system(s) for Sound Quality and I'm not ready to drop $1000+ on a handheld. I let an old portable Alpine unit slip through my hands, but the fact that the seller was using an $8 computer mic really turned me off to the thing.
from here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0259722063
-Dwight
Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 2:53 am
by Ryan from Ohio
lol, wow.
Theres a thread or two lurking around here on RTA.
Basically there is a fairly cheap program you can run off your computer, buy a $40 mic and I think the breakout box was about $60.
The program is like $40 for the lite version and price goes up with features/resolution.
Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 5:25 am
by falkenbd
Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 2:06 pm
by Fishy
Yeah I saw that one, and probably what I'm gonna get. I just bought my first laptop, can ya believe it? I'll be using it as a chartplotter and part of a fish-log system I'm going to try to sell to the FWC down here(they are getting seriously anal about fish reports so I'd thought I'd go them one better and give em ones with real-time GPS coordinates, etc).
I guess the real core of the RTA thing is getting a good calibrated mic which is what I've got to research next.
After that the next item on the shopping list is this:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdet ... er=390-804
I've got an ancient Heathkit audio function generator coming,
but who knows if that wiill work. This product seems to make grabbing TS parameters off an unknown driver a lot simpler.
-Dwight
Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 2:35 pm
by cargodz
I just picked up one of those WT3s from parts express.
Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 9:40 pm
by Fishy
cargodz wrote:I just picked up one of those WT3s from parts express.
You use it yet? Looks like fun. I got all kinds of orphaned drivers layin around w/o T/S parameters. They need a nice, comfortable MDF home.
I also found a free linux based spectrum analyzer program:
http://baudline.com/
And I just happened to have bought one of these
http://laptop.org/en/laptop/
around Christmas for my fish-log project.
Its Linux based, child-proof, rain-proof, and driftboat-captain-proof, just a really gross lime green. But hey, I'm losin crap all the time. It'll be easier to find. Only problem I see is the USB microphone interface, but I have very smart customers/investors who could possibly do the dirty work for me.
-Dwight
Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 3:13 am
by Ryan from Ohio
Still waiting to hear about that WT3... poke poke poke.
Guess I will have to pick the phone up tonight.

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 3:59 am
by cargodz
Nope I haven't used it yet, as it requires that you have a sound card which is something my old pos computer doesn't have

So till I get my new computer (after I sell the R/T), then I'm probably just gonna use my buddies laptop for it.